How to build a mini baseball stadium

Written by maeri claire| 13/05/2017

Mini baseball stadiums can be complex or easy depending upon the actual stadium your are modelling. (stadium in cincinnati image by Ritu Jethani from Fotolia.com)

Baseball is America's national pastime. Creating mini baseball stadium replicas is a great way to pass time and show off your love of the sport. Baseball stadiums consist of a field, bleachers, scoreboard, lights, dugouts and areas where concessions are sold, announcers sit and fans enjoy large parties. Less detail will need to go into a high school style mini baseball stadium as opposed to a major league team's stadium. Keep that in mind when first starting out with such a hobby.

Obtain an aerial photograph of the stadium you would like to create a miniature of. If you don't have a specific stadium in mind, any picture of a stadium will do.

Draw the outline of your field onto the centre of the plywood. A good scale to use is 1 inch for every 32 feet of stadium space. Start with the field and draw out and around. It is 127.3 feet from home plate to second base. Therefore your distance should be about 4 inches from home plate to second base. The Baseball Almanac provides measurements of real field that you can use to scale your model.

Cut the shape of the grassy part of your field out of green felt and glue it to the plywood where you mapped it in your field.

Fill in the rest of the field with light brown art sand. You may need a spray on adhesive to keep the sand in place. Build up the pitchers mound by creating a mound with a 5-inch radius and a gradual slope.

Shape four small squares out of white modelling clay. The size of these will be hard to scale, so you may want to lay them on the field in position of the bases to determine whether you need to make them smaller or larger.

Buy fake plants, if necessary, from your local craft store or through online modelling outlets. You may even be able to purchase miniature stadium lights and save yourself the trouble of having to make them.

Sculpt your buildings, lights, scoreboard and bleachers, using modelling clay, with the help of the stadium photographs. To make the miniature baseball stadium lighter, hollow out your buildings from under. You will want to begin hollowing after the sculpture has dried to a medium density. You can use pieces of clear plastic to imitate the real glass in some of the structures. Allow the clay to harden completely.

Paint all of the clay pieces to match your photographs and allow to dry.

Affix the clay pieces to the plywood with glue.

Create small fans and players with the modelling clay and situate them throughout the field and bleachers to add extra detail.

Tip

If you would prefer to not to paint all of your buildings and fixtures, add food colouring to the batches of clay as you go. If you prefer to make your own modelling clay, combine 1 cup of salt, 4 tablespoons of oil, 2 cups of flour, 4 tablespoons cream of tartar and 2 cups of water over low heat until the mixture stiffens and no longer sticks to the pot. Store the mixture in a closed container until you are ready to use it.

Tips and warnings

If you would prefer to not to paint all of your buildings and fixtures, add food colouring to the batches of clay as you go.

If you prefer to make your own modelling clay, combine 1 cup of salt, 4 tablespoons of oil, 2 cups of flour, 4 tablespoons cream of tartar and 2 cups of water over low heat until the mixture stiffens and no longer sticks to the pot. Store the mixture in a closed container until you are ready to use it.